The seeker : The dark is rising

Year of release : 2007

Run time : 1h35m

Genre : Family / Drama / Fantasy

Cast : Alexander Ludwig, Ian McShane, Frances Conroy, Amelia Warner

The movie is a very loose adaptation of the 1973 children's fantasy novel 'The dark is rising' by Susan Cooper, the 2nd book in her 'The dark is rising sequence' series. The movie changed Will's age, from 11 to 14, nationality, from English to American; the family problems and crush on the girl not being in the book. The book's action took place in the 1960's-1970's.

Will is a 13 year old who is about to turn 14. The day before his birthday he sees a girl (she looks 20 years old) on the school bus, he seems to fall for. On his way home, the residents of the manor (I thought these two were a couple, but I think they're just friends. I still don't know which one of them owns the manor!)

Later in the day (maybe) two local farmers bring Will's family a Christmas tree.

Will has 6 siblings (his parents were very busy in that department), and one of his older brothers comes home for Christmas taking his room, sending him to the attic (I can feel the brotherly love!)

 

Will buys a neckline for his sister, and is taken to a dark room,in the basement, by two 'police officers' who say he stole something, turning into birds, trying to k1ll him!

At the manor Christmas party,the farmers and the manor residents talk about Will being one of them, and Will leaves due to his brother dating the girl he likes (his brother is older,and once again,we're proven he's into a girl much older than him!)

Will leaves, and he is chased by a man on a horse and his two black dogs!

After this, he is told by the Elders (the 2 manor residents and the 2 farmers) that he is one of them, warriors of The Light,and that he can move through time, finding the 6 signs which will grant them power over the Dark. The Dark is also seeking them, as the Rider wants to bring darkness upon the land.

He only has 5 days to find them (ridiculous)! And he does!

I personally didn't like the movie. The characters have no depth,and we are given no reasons for why are they doing what they are doing! The movie was too short and there was not enough time to develop the characters. At the end of the movie we know nothing about them!

 

There's no love, no emotion, gluing the movie together! There's no reason to fight the Dark, the Dark is just evil for the purpose of being evil! At the beginning it reminded me of the Russian masterpiece Nightwatch, but soon I discovered it was nothing like it!

Will's family is there just to be there, but his parents are oblivious to the world around them;his father ,although home, is always unavailable to Will, his brothers are jerks,especially the one who came back from college, who's got an attitude towards his father and Will!

Will got his powers all of a sudden, when he turned 14,and no one teaches him how to use them, the members of The Light, can't be bothered!

The girl- at the end the Rider calls her Witch! Was she ancient?If so, why did she ask for youth,since she was already young?and why was she in school?!

Also, the paring of these 2, the girl who looks 20,with Will,who looks like a 13-14 year old kid,is just yuck! I looked up the actors, and Amelia Warner is 10 years older than Alexander Ludwig! So she was 24 when he was 14!!

 

SPOILERS

Will keeps on stepping back in time, finding the sings, and once he steps with his sister, who gets a kitten from the past, who somehow doesn't change the time line! It's fact if you do anything differently in the past, damage or take something, the time line will be different!

Towards the end of the movie- in the manor - everything froze,but everybody was still sleeping! I can tell you that if it gets cold in the room,you wake up due to the cold! There were ice cones on the ceiling, everything frosted, but somehow, everybody was still sleeping!!!

 

Then the house was flooded,but the Light team ends up in their secret place, Will finds his twin (so his parents have 8 kids in total !!) also, the elders never help, is just Will, and the fights are ridiculous!

Anyway, he fights with The Rider, he wins, and although it was Christmas, it's spring now, and they are going back home! His parents are already home!!! This made no sense!!!

Also, one of the farmers, who was k1lled by the Rider, is alive now!!

I also don't like it when someone just gets powers when they turn a certain age,I find it dumb! This happens a lot in books for kids or teenagers!

The movie was filmed on location in Romania, where they built an entire English town (which I loved,I was wondering actually where does this beautiful idyllic town exist!) and English chapel.

The visual effects were good,but the director chose to minimize the use of it. They had a 1000 snakes shipped from the Czech Republic to dump on the actors (I didn't watch that scene as I hate snakes), they dumped real water on the mansion, and real birds were trained to fly at the actors.

The acting was so and so even from actors who are actually good, but in this movie they seemed somewhat bored, like Ian McShane. The only one who was actually good,and was a joy to watch, was Christopher Eccleston,who plays The Rider.

 

The soundtrack was so and so, at the beginning it felt mismatched, as in, I felt what was on the screen didn't match the music.

The movie was a box office flop, costing 45 million dollars to make, and making 31 million, being panned by critics and fans of the book series. The author herself was not happy with the adaptation of her book, the movie title kept on changing, while advanced screenings were canceled.

The movie had one of the poorest starts in the fantasy film genre.

The movie is 7 days free on AppleTv+, and is for rent / sale on AppleTv, Fandango at Home.

Rating : Coulda woulda shoulda!